Jane's Stuff

Jane enjoys drawing and painting. Join her. Doodling, drawing, ART - all of it is great for brain health! Check out Jane's Youtube channel below. And if you see a picture on my blog you would like to purchase send Jane an email (or check out Jane's store).

This acrylic painting has possibilities. It started as me just swiping the brush across the canvas with paint left over from Five Friends.

Aimlessly sketching again. I figure the more I have a pen or pencil or crayon to paper, the more opportunities the inspiration will have to take over or lead me somewhere. Aimless creating isn't waste of time. It's a form of exercise for the imagination. It too needs regular exercise.

This is one of those hollow core indoor doors. I tore off the inner core and flimsy side to make it lighter. Then I covered it in gesso. This is my next canvas. My intention is to use it for a work I am doing for the pediatric wing at Avera McKennan Hospital in memory of my daughter Maggie. I think it is going to be a bunch of animals and kids. We'll see where it leads me.

This kind of art is what I've been wanting to do for a long time. It is pen and ink and watercolor. I had to get the right kind of ink -- found some waterproof ink called Noodlers. And I got myself a LAMY refillable fountain pen and converter (which you need to put new ink into the pen). My favorite illustrator, Quentin Blake, uses waterproof ink with a real fountain pen (meaning he dips it in the ink and draws). I couldn't do this. I couldn't control the ink well enough.

I love using a fountain pen, but I needed one like my LAMY that has the ink right inside it.

I love it!

So above is the drawing/painting I did. It didn't scan the best -- it got fuzzy on the right side, but it real life it is crystal clear. I'm going to frame it later and put it in an art show.

No, it isn't some classical piece, but it's fun and it makes me smile. And I am guessing some cat lover somewhere will love it.

This was a quick drawing from an assignment from Carla Sonheim's book about 52 lessons for the mixed media artist. I had gotten away from Carla's book. This was fun, but later today I'll get back to Agnes and the fish lady...I may change her name to Ruthie though. We'll see. IF you want to get Carla's book, click on my pig picture. It will take you to her website and she has a store there (or go to Amazon and search her name).

Here's my quick family sketch from our Christmas program last night. I love it though it has a lot of problems with it.

Why do I love it?

I learned a lot after doing it.

1. I should have started from the bottom up because the proportions are all wrong. I'm too skinny. My husband is too wide. We all should be a lot more squished together.

2. But I like my boy Hawken who is the front one in a wheelchair. I like Pete (he's the boy on the right). And I like Ryan's pic (who is the boy with the glasses in the back). That actually looks like him even though I'm doing my sketchy style.

3. And yes, I feel this is my style. Maybe I'll redo this and even paint it -- watercolor would make this look cool.

4. And I have plans. I'm going to put an online portfolio together and have a portfolio page on this website. I am ready! And I am excited.

5. I have a couple of kid stories brewing in me. I've drawn some pics. I've thought up some lines.....I am ready to fly.

I'm plugging away at the book I mentioned yesterday. Can't share with you any of my own pictures right now, but wanted to share one of Quentin Blake's famous illustrations. The picture on the left is from Roald Dahl's book called The Witches.

For those of you who are also sketching, trying to find your style, or who just love drawing, I am going to share some passages from this book:Don't agonize over your work, and don't dash through it either. Neither extreme has any special virtue.

Overworking is against the rules. If you grip the pen tightly, bear down hard, push your nose into the paper and agonize over every line . . . your drawings will look like hard labor. If you back off, relax, do a little sketching and stop before you need to, your drawings will begin to look like sparks of spontaneity and fun.

(Try) to capture the spirit of something . . . sneak into the heart of your subject by going direct. We're not so much interested in the appearance of something, so much as the 'something' itself.

Think of it this way: An effective poem wastes no words on its way to the core of its subject. A successful drawing wastes no lines on the same trip. One can spend weeks on marvelous painting of a rabbit, accurate to the tiniest detail -- and yet still miss its essential rabbit-ness. And then dash off a funny little sketch in a few lines -- and pin that bunny's soul to the paper.

I wanted to show you a new book I got to work in along with Carla's book.

It was written by Quentin Blake and John Cassidy. Blake is one of my all time favorite illustrators (I've mentioned him several times).

I believe it was a book written for children, but I'm going to use it anyway!

Sometimes kid books have more to say than ones for grown-ups (though that is what is perfect about Carla's latest book because it is for adults and kids -- anyone!)

My computer isn't working right or I'd give you a link to Carla's website and to Quentin's. The picture is a link to Amazon for that book -- though it is out of print (but there are still copies around).